THE BET: Beginning
by xmenfan33
Summary: The X-kids have been driving the adults insane with their misbehavior, Logan challenges the Professor that he can get them to behave better than Charles, but the kids seemed determined to prove him wrong. Humor.
1. Preface: Wagers Estabilished

THE BET: Beginning

Disclaimer : I do not own X-men Evolution or any of the related characters.

Story line:

The X-kids have been driving the adults insane with their misbehavior, Logan challenges the Professor that he can get them to behave better than Charles, but the kids seemed determined to prove him wrong.

Preface:

Wagers Established.

Charles frowned as he searched his desk for his bottle of aspirin. He knew there had to be some in here, he'd just gotten three new bottles the last time they went shopping. He remembered, he specifically asked Jean to pick it up for him. It was true that he hadn't waited around for the kids to come back because 1) He needed to lie down with this headache 2) He trusted Jean, and 3) They always took forever to shop and he had important things to do. Things involving his puzzle book and calling yet another repair company to fix the mess the kids made just by walking around.

He heard a crash coming from upstairs, whatever had broken sounded both big and expensive. With a sigh he gave up his search for aspirin and wheeled himself to the elevator to discover what the children had broken this time. He was calm in appearance, as he had long ago discovered that the children were easier to maintain as long as he appeared calm and collected . That was until the doors to the elevator slid open and he realized what they had broken this time.

Instead of the box appearing on the other side of the doors, there was nothing but empty space, and a still sparking cord. He briefly wondered how they had even managed to do this before he heard through the shaft. "Oh, now you've done it! Why'd you freeze the cable anyway?"

"I told you! I wanted to see what would happen if we gave Mr. Logan frost bite! I'm telling you there's no way that nothing bothers him."

It was then that Charles realized that Bobby and Jubilee were involved in this somehow, and that somewhere in the basement there was currently a frost bitten, bruised, and very angry Canadian teacher who was probably going to blame him for this. Forget aspirin, Charles need a vacation. Even a few days would be good, but how? How could he manage to get away for a few days without being accused of running away? How would he relax when he wasn't certain he would have a home to return to? How could he manage to escape without the other teachers?

He decided for the sake of his sanity (which in turn was for the good of mankind, seriously imagine Charles going insane! He could make the whole world believe they were purple flying monkeys or something.) he was returning to his office to find the aspirin after all. He made it as far as the doorway when he heard the door to the basement slam open. Logan had finally came back upstairs, and was livid.

"CHARLES!" Logan yelled, and Charles sighed. It was going to be a long day.

"Yes Logan?" Charles asked, pretending not to notice the debris or smoke in Logan's hair.

"Chuck you've got to do something about those kids! Or let me handle them my way." Logan said as they both entered Charles' office. "That was the twelfth time this week one of them nearly killed me! If I was anyone else I'd be dead at the bottom of an elevator shaft right now. We can't let this keep going and you're no longer even trying to stop their behavior."

"Logan, there are currently four adults and thirteen students, we are out numbered three to one and you want me to know everything they're doing at all times? I'm a telepath not a magician."

"Charles, they just spent at least ten minuted icing up an elevator to the point of breaking and you missed it!" Logan said. " I don't expect you to know everything anymore than anyone else can, but we've got to get these kids under control. Do we really want to have to deal with another lawsuit when the New Mutants decide to go joy riding in the Xvan and accidentally knock down the fence to the elephant exhibit again?"

"Come now Logan, be reasonable. There's no way they'd manage that again !" Charles said as he finally found his aspirin.

"It. Already. Happened. Five. Freakin. Times. It will happen again if we don't do something." Logan said as he snatched the bottle from Charles' hand. He was a tad grumpy over the whole falling three floor while frozen but his hair was on fire thing.

"Well, you haven't managed to contain them either, after all that last time, you were with them." Charles reasoned, bristling a little at being blamed for the children's misbehavior.

"They ran me over, my claws got stuck in the rear bumper and they dragged me for eight blocks! That don't make me 'with them', it makes me a casualty of their insanity, again!" Logan growled.

"Logan-"

"No just this week, I've been run over, set on fire twice, thrown down the elevator shaft, electrocuted, poisoned, knocked off a building, drugged, stabbed, choked, and had two heart attacks." Logan said.

"Amara didn't mean to sneeze, Ray missed the target that was an accident, Kitty's cooking is terrible but it isn't poison nor did her driving cause you to have a heart attack. We discussed this already Logan, it was a panic attack not a heart attack, Evan like Amara didn't mean to cough just as you were walking by...and when were you choked?" Charles said.

"The same time I was poisoned." Logan said with a frown. "If you aren't going to take this seriously, Charles those kids are going to hurt someone who doesn't heal."

"I think you may be overreacting, Logan." Charles said with a sigh. He really just wanted to get this over with so he could return to his puzzle and find some aspirin.

"Fine. Fine. You just can't handle them anymore Charles. I bet I could get these kids into shape in less than a week if you gave me free reign."

"Okay."

"... Okay what?"

"Okay I give you free reign. One week Logan, no interference, just you and the kids. If you manage to get them to change their behavior you win, if they behave exactly the same for you as they do when I'm here, you admit there is nothing more that we can do."

"Okay. Okay Chuck, you got yourself a bet. Just remember, when I win, you owe me. Big."

"Fine."

Logan walked out of the office five minutes later, completely satisfied that he'd won the argument, meanwhile Charles chuckled to himself. That was easier than he thought it would be. Now he could make his escape and there was no way Logan could blame him for it. After all, he was getting out of the way so Logan could face his bet. Sometimes the others were almost to easy to manipulate... if only the kids were so easy. Logan would learn soon enough though. Oh yes, he would learn.


	2. Waking the kids,5:30 am

THE BET: Beginning

Disclaimer : I do not own X-men Evolution or any of the related characters.

Story line:

The X-kids have been driving the adults insane with their misbehavior, Logan challenges the Professor that he can get them to behave better than Charles, but the kids seemed determined to prove him wrong.

Chapter One:

Day One

Waking the kids,5:30 am

The morning after Charles,Ororo, and Hank left Logan decided the best way to start teaching the kids was with an early morning danger room session. Since it was a Saturday, he had the whole day to work on their behavior.

The down side to this was the kids were used to getting to sleep in on Saturday, Charles was soft on them at this (as Logan had repeatedly pointed out) so instead of their usual 6:25 wake up that occurred Monday through Friday, they were allowed to lie about until around 7:30. Logan felt this gave them the extra energy for mayhem.

So he decided to start extra early, He told the kids last night to go to bed early and that he expected everyone in the danger room by five thirty in the morning. At the time the kids all nodded and agreed before retiring to their rooms. What Logan failed to notice is every single one of them thought he was joking around.

At exactly 5:33 Logan walked into the danger room fully expecting to see 13 drowsy and cranky teenagers. What he saw instead was...a big empty steel room. He was disappointed, but undeterred. They were just going to make this difficult, further evidence that Charles was to soft on them.

Logan marched upstairs to wake the wayward teens, starting with his (least) favorite prankster, Bobby Drake. Logan walked calmly into Bobby's room, and was promptly assaulted by a shower of an unknown sticky substance, followed by what seemed to be an unusually large bird exploding in his face. He then tripped over the shoes Bobby had dumped on the floor after changing into his pajamas the night before, fell over Bobby's chair that was for some reason pulled out from the desk halfway across the room, and flew out of the open window.

He stormed back up the stairs, grateful to land in the fountain that seemed to wash some of the feathers off of him, and back into Bobby's room. Where Bobby screamed "Ahh! Chicken monster!" and froze him to the floor.

As it turned out, Bobby and Kurt were in the middle of a prank war, unknown to the adults. Bobby had filled a bucket with glue and cut open three pilfered feather pillows and tied them to his door so that when Kurt came in, he would be covered in both. Bobby called it the chicken prank. Logan steadfastly refused to ask how such a prank was to work when Kurt never actually **walked** into anyone's room, preferring to teleport.

Instead he simply moved on to the next person on his list after telling Bobby to clean up the mess. Shaking his head in frustration, and ignoring the feathers that continued to float off of him, Logan made his way next door to Kurt's room.

Kurt had woken to Bobby's scream, so when Logan walked into the room Kurt was not in the bed. He was no where to be seen. For half a minute, Logan had foolishly hoped that this meant the boy had realized he was supposed to be somewhere and gone to the danger room, or at least down to breakfast.

This hope was dashed by the large ceramic bust the lay shattered surrounding Logan as he turned back toward the door. Kurt had heard Bobby's scream, and then hadn't heard anything further. He had assumed if Bobby had manged to escape or defeat whatever mutant chicken had attacked him, Kurt would have heard it. When silence descended, Kurt assumed that Bobby had been captured and/or eaten.

Kurt then decided the only reasonable thing to do was to hide and ambush the carnivorous mutant chicken that had clearly invaded the mansion while they all slept. Hopefully, he thought to himself, he hadn't lost too many teammates to this evil creature that just defeated his best friend/ enemy of the week.

Kurt was shocked that the Mutant Chicken was still standing, until it spoke in Logan's voice simply stating " Get to the Danger Room, Elf."

Somehow the MC (he shortened it in his head, to save time.) Had eaten Logan and stole his voice! This was worse than he thought. Kurt ran from the room screaming for help in German, before remembering that he could teleport and with a puff of blue smoke disappeared.

There is nothing on the Earth more frightening than a giant mutant chicken two inches from your face when you open your eyes in the wee hours of the morning. That at least is why Ray maintained what happened next happened.

Logan had entered Ray's room next, since it was next to Kurt's. Ray had gone to sleep with his ear-buds in, music playing full blast, so he didn't hear Logan's repeated attempts to wake him. Logan then growled in frustration and shook the boy's shoulder. Ray's eyes popped open, then Ray screamed...and electrocuted Logan.

After Logan lit up like a Christmas tree, and Ray's heart-rate dropped back down from 'exploding' to 'panicked' Logan told him to get to the Danger Room, and stormed out with as much dignity as one can muster while smoke is pouring out of one's ears and hair.

After the near death experience of waking Kurt and Ray, Logan decided that perhaps he should wash the feathers off before attempting to wake any of the other children. He was disappointed, but not shocked that the majority seemed to have slept through the chaos created by the first three boys' waking.

Instead of returning to his room (and risking further injury from overreacting children) Logan ducked into the boys' bathroom to quickly shower. It wasn't like any of the were awake and trying to get ready for the day anyway. Just because he told them all to be up now. Logan was getting irritated again just thinking about it.

He did briefly feel bad about the mess he was about to make of the boys' bathroom, after all they were responsible for keeping this room clean and he would be making a huge mess... then he actually walked into the bathroom. Towels were hanging haphazardly off every available surface. More towels lay crumpled damp on the floor. There was an inch thick layer of what appeared to be mud on the floor of the shower stall, and there was toothpaste everywhere. (Logan briefly wondered why it was on the ceiling too, before deciding it didn't matter). No longer feeling the least bit guilty over the glue and feathers he was going to get everywhere, but trying to remember when he had received his last tetanus booster, Logan jumped into the shower fully clothed except for his boots. -


	3. Waking the kids,5:49 am

THE BET: Beginning

Disclaimer : I do not own X-men Evolution or any of the related characters.

Story line:

The X-kids have been driving the adults insane with their misbehavior, Logan challenges the Professor that he can get them to behave better than Charles, but the kids seemed determined to prove him wrong.

Chapter Two:

Day One

Waking the kids,5:49 am

As Logan washed the muck off himself (and steadfastly refused to look at the mess surrounding him) he was completely unaware of an upcoming danger. Bobby, meanwhile had finally managed to get out of bed and made his way to the bathroom. He had heard Kurt's scream, so he assumed that Kurt was in the shower when he heard the water running.

Bobby hated having to shower after Kurt, Kurt always left fur in the drain. Kurt also always took forever, so Bobby decided now was the time for another prank. Bobby snuck into the bathroom (which Kurt never locked, and Logan forgot to...mostly because his didn't want to touch anything else in this room) and flushed the toilet.

The reaction was immediate. Steam shot from behind the curtain as a man screamed and Bobby tried to dash out of the room, slipping on a wet towel and sliding into the wall. Logan slipped on the mud at the same time as he dodged the hot water, and fell out of the stall mostly wrapped in the shower curtain.

Bobby, seeing that his prey was not Kurt but his very angry teacher he had already attacked once today, screamed a second time and attempted to run from the room. He tripped over a second pile of towels, and slid into the towel rack breaking it, and punching a hole in the wall, before he finally managed to get out of the door, dragging about half the remaining towels with him.

Logan recovered from his fall,and the scalding water, quickly so shaking his head at the boy in question and mentally adding another hour to the boy's punishment, Logan went to Roberto's room to make sure the boy was awake. As it turned out he was, because he had not yet been to bed. Instead he sat on the chair in his room, still playing the video game he started after school yesterday.

Logan cleared his throat to try to get the boy's attention. It didn't work. He tried to remember if Roberto had been down for dinner the night before, but it was a blurred image of threatening children not to throw food under pain of danger room, and yelling a children to put away the phones during the meal. In other worlds, he was pretty sure he fed fourteen kids, but he couldn't swear to it. For all he knew there had been twenty of them, with Jamie popping up all over the table to grab more food before it could be thrown despite Logan's threats.

Logan finally shook the boy's shoulder in an attempt to get his attention. Roberto stared blankly up at him for a full minute before somewhere in his sleep deprived brain it occurred to him that a teacher was speaking. Before he could get into further trouble, he assured Logan that he would be ready in ten minutes. Logan gave a satisfied nod. This was the first kid who hadn't somehow attacked him while he woke them. He thought maybe his luck had changed. That was until he turned to leave and accidentally tripped over the controller's power cord. Roberto had plugged it in a while ago when the controller had nearly died while he was busy exploring. Now though, it flew across the room before shattering a picture frame and knocking over several books.

Logan briefly thought about apologizing, when Roberto jumped on his back with a wild scream. "It took me sixteen hours to build all that, and now it's all gone because of you! I poured my blood,sweat, and tears into that war and I just lost! How could you do that to me? Doesn't the survival of the race matter to you at all?"

"It's a game kid. Get over it. You're grounded, so you can figure out your next move while you face your punishment."

From there Logan, who was now convinced that he may need longer than one week to whip these kids back in shape, walked into Sam's room. Tired of repeated attacks, Logan stood in the doorway and yelled loudly "Sam get downstairs now or you will have double kitchen duty."

Sam had still been deep asleep, but as soon as he heard Logan he was awake and jumping out of bed.

Years of early morning wake ups from his mom had trained him well, before Logan left the room Sam was already pulling his uniform out of the closet. Satisfied that he had finally found a method that worked, Logan smugly walked down the hall to the next room.

Next on his list was Jamie. It was never a good idea to startle that boy, but on the other hand he had been injured enough for one day. He would use the new improved yell from the doorway method and give the boy an extra few minutes to pull himself -literally- back together.

Logan braced himself as he slammed open the door, yelling as he had before... to find the room completely empty. Jamie was gone! Logan's first thought was to wonder how the boy could have been taken from the mansion without his notice.

To his credit, his second thought was to hope that where the boy was, he was alright. Then he wondered how long it would take to find the boy, before it occurred to him: Charles was going to blame him for this! Now that Smug Bald Know It All was going to win the bet and Logan could NOT let that happen. Which is why he quickly announced. "Sorry, wrong number." when the emergency operator picked up before hanging up his cell phone and turning it off.

For good measure he went ahead and took the battery out so the call wouldn't be traced...Then he decided to be extra careful and stomped on it. With the phone taken care of Logan decided to search for the boy himself. After throwing the remains of his phone over the cliff, just to be safe. He wasn't sure how the whole GPS thing worked on phones, but he knew from his limited memory of his time with various agencies that he may want to burn it as well before throwing it over the cliff, just to be sure.


	4. Waking the kids,6:00 am

THE BET: Beginning

Disclaimer : I do not own X-men Evolution or any of the related characters.

Story line:

The X-kids have been driving the adults insane with their misbehavior, Logan challenges the Professor that he can get them to behave better than Charles, but the kids seemed determined to prove him wrong.

Chapter Three:

Day One

Waking the kids,6:00 am

As it turned out, Jamie had been the only student to listen last night, and believe Logan. So he had woken at 5, dressed, eaten, and arrived in the Danger Room promptly at 5:15. When no one else had arrived by 5:23 Jamie began to wonder if the plan had been changed. When Logan hadn't arrived by 5:29 Jamie decided that he had misunderstood, and had gone upstairs, and out to the obstacle course, assuming that is where the others would be meeting.

At 5:30 Jamie arrived outside, now worried he was running late. He decided that Mr. Logan wouldn't be angry with him once he explained that he misunderstood and had gone to the danger room. At least he hoped so. He waited with relief at the beginning of the course, no one else in sight. Perhaps he wasn't late after all, he hoped.

At 5:33, just as Logan was walking into the danger room, Jamie spotted his greatest foe. A creature so evil, so diabolical it had been tormenting him for months now. A fat red squirrel. Scarlet Face (Jamie named the squirrel after deciding it couldn't be a real villain until it had a name.) chittered at him, then as usual threw a couple peanut shells at him.

Now Jamie was torn, he could chase his enemy off the property, or he could wait for the others. On one hand, when Mr. Logan arrived anyone who was missing would be in trouble. On the other hand, just last night when Jamie had asked him how Jamie should deal with his furry bully, Logan had advised that you should always stand up to a bully, then glared at Kurt for some reason. On the other hand, Jamie didn't want to have to run the course alone which is how being late was usually punished. On the other hand, Jamie was beginning to wonder if had misunderstood and Mr. Logan had meant 5:30 pm not am.

As Logan flew into the fountain in the front yard, Jamie chased Scarlet Face back into the woods in the opposite direction. It almost gave him the slip once or twice over the next ten minutes, but he finally managed to trap the squirrel with the stone wall that surrounded the property on three of it's four sides. The fourth side was a cliff, and a shorter iron fence. Scarlet Face had no where to go, this time Jamie had clearly won. He could now kick the bully out of the yard and be free of the constant torment!

Jamie managed to catch the little demon, and with a cry of triumph push it gently through the bars of the gate (he didn't want to hurt it). As the evil squirrel ran off, sure to return with in a few minutes, Jamie spotted his second greatest enemy across the street. A large Canadian Goose. Unlike the squirrel, Jamie had no intention of confronting this enemy. He instead hid in the trees near the driveway,hoping that it hadn't spotted him.

Unlike the squirrel, geese in general were his enemies. He was afraid of them, and always had been. Normally he got Rhane to chase them off for him, but she was still in bed. Which, it now occurred to him, is where he should probably be if he had misunderstood the instructions last night. In fact, had he misunderstood, which he was pretty sure he had, he was likely to get in trouble for being outside right now.

However, if he explained to Logan he had been busy dealing with the fury bully, it was possible it would be okay. Surely by now Mr. Logan was awake, after all it was nearly 6 and everyone knew Mr. Logan was out at the gazebo every morning at 6 to meditate.

Jamie arrived at the gazebo, therefore, just as Logan scattered the ashes of his former phone over the edge. Logan had spent the last several minutes trying to decide where to begin looking for the child, so it was not an understatement to say that he was surprised by the boy appearing next to him as he watched the last of the ashes slide from his fingers saying. "Hey Mr. Logan what are you doing?"

To cover his surprise, Logan changed the subject. "Where have you been?"

"Well, first I got up extra early and went to the Danger room, but then I realized no one else was coming so I thought I was supposed to go to the obstetrical course instead. Then none was there either, but the fury bully arrived and started throwing things at me. I remembered what you said last night, so I chased after him. It worked, he was really scared. I chased him all the way off the property. Then my greatest enemy was watching from across the street so I hid in the trees for awhile. I'm brave but not that brave yet. I'm working on it. Finally, I decided to come over here and see if you were here yet, and to ask if I misunderstood because no one else ever came so was it tonight we were doing it?"

"No kid, it was this morning. You're the only one who bothered to listen. I'm proud of you for standing up to him. As a reward for doing what I told ya, you can skip the second half of the Danger room lesson the others just earned themselves."

"So go wait downstairs?"

"Yeah, the others will be there soon."

Logan was greatly relieved the boy was unharmed. Not only was this good news for the boy, it also meant he didn't have to admit defeat to Charles. All he had to do was replace his phone before Charles called or returned and he would never know. In fact it could wait until after the DR lesson, because he could just use it as an excuse. Everyone knew he turned his phone off when training the kids.

By 6:05 everything was back on course as he went to go wake Scott. Tomorrow, he decided, he would start even earlier. He smiled as he pushed open Scott's door without knocking, as he yelled "I need you in the danger room now Sum-"

He stared Speechless. Not only was he starting earlier tomorrow, he wasn't sleeping either.


	5. Waking the kids,6:10 am

THE BET: Beginning

Disclaimer : I do not own X-men Evolution or any of the related characters.

Story line:

The X-kids have been driving the adults insane with their misbehavior, Logan challenges the Professor that he can get them to behave better than Charles, but the kids seemed determined to prove him wrong.

Chapter Four:

Day One

Waking the kids,6:10 am

Logan had stormed downstairs in search of a drink. He didn't care that it was 6 in the morning. He didn't care that he still had other kids to wake. He didn't care that Charles was obviously right and no one could handle these kids.

The number one thing he had banned from this house while he was in charge. The one thing all of them knew he had zero tolerance for. The ONE THING that was so forbidden he would not even say out loud, and Charles prize students were involved. What will Charles say when he finds out, that not only was THIS happening under the roof, but Scott and Jean were the ones doing it? Oh this was even worse than Jamie being kidnapped. How was Logan going to handle this? Clearly they would be spending the next month in the Danger Room. But separately. They weren't allowed in the same room at the same time after this, no, clearly not. Because if he allowed them the privilege of being in the same space they would just continue this behavior and there was no way he could allow them to continue this Board Game (he refused to even THINK the name) craze.

He knew the moment he looked at them they'd been at it all night. He'd seen that look before. He'd lost many people over years to that...that... game. They would become so consumed they would spend years on a single game. That was fine and good for people like him, or Victor, or Raven. They had forever. People like Scott and Jean though, he couldn't allow them to throw their lives away like this.

With his thoughts gathered, Logan stopped halfway down the stairs, and turned back to Scott's room. He couldn't just let this go, he had to get rid of that dreaded game before this spread any further. As he expected, the couple were exactly as he had found them a few minutes earlier. It was as if they hadn't noticed his previous arrival, and knowing the toxic nature of the Game it was very probable they hadn't.

Logan stepped into the room, bracing himself, and grabbed the board off the floor. He threw it, and all the pieces on it in the waste basket before grabbing the liner and making his way toward the door. He was counting on shock to make it past the threshold, and it nearly worked. He had one foot on the other side when Scott screamed dramatically, and Jean grabbed Logan with her powers.

Logan sighed, as Jean threw herself on his back and Scott attempted to grab the bag from his hand. It was going to be a long day. Jamie and Kurt came down the hall to find out what was going on. This distracted Logan long enough for Scott to pull the bag from his hand. Logan wanted to keep this from spreading, so he needed to keep the other kids in the dark. It was important that they never discover the game in the first place.

"what's going on? I thought we were practicing downstairs?" Jamie said.

"Why are you attacking Logan?" Kurt added.

Jean opened her mouth to respond and Logan panicked. In hindsight, he may have chosen a worse alibi that what was actually happening, but in his defense he was trying to spare them all years of wasted time. "These two were having sex and I caught em, they're worried I'll tell the Professor and get them kicked out." Logan said, having the presence of mind at least to make it sound dire to break that rule.

Both Jean and Scott sputtered denying Logan's accusation. He took the opening to grab the bag back from Scott and run down the hall before any of the four kids recovered.

At 6:15 Logan made his way to Girls' dorms. The bag was safely hidden in the back of his closet until he could be rid of it, the boys and Jean were all awake, and Logan was hoping to get the day back on track.

He wondered how it was that these kids all managed to sleep so deeply. After all this waking process had not been remotely quiet, yet no one had gotten up on their own since he started. Jamie was already up (the kid was getting a reward for that, as soon as he figured out what to get him), but no one else had bothered to even pretend to listen to him.

Annoyed with the boys' antics, and the lateness of the morning, Logan stormed down the hall, reaching Kitty's room in record time. He slammed open the door to find Kitty up, fully dressed, and in the process of making her bed. Slightly reassured at this sight Logan barked out to be in the Danger room with in ten minutes and closed the door.

Kitty sighed in relief. Luckily Jean had sent her a text telling her that Logan wanted everyone up and ready, so she had manged to make it look like she'd been up for a while, in reality she had shoved on her uniform, and pulled her hair into a ponytail while reading Jean's text and then as she heard Logan stomping down the hall jumped toward the bed to look like she was busy when he opened the door.

Thank goodness, she decided, that she hadn't yet been to bed so she was awake when she received the text. Kitty, Rogue, Amara, Tabitha, and Jubilee had been out all night. Rogue figured out a few months ago that if they snuck out through the sprinklers after making sure to spray deodorant and perfume in their room, Logan would miss the fact that they were gone. As long as he was distracted, and it didn't happen to often.

The added bonus of sneaking through the sprinklers on the way back in, was not only did it wash the smells off, but at a glance it looked like they'd just showered. It was a good plan. Rogue had confessed that she herself had been using it for nearly a year before letting the others in on it. So far, Logan suspected nothing... Rogue wasn't sure if the Professor did or not.

Logan had never noticed the "Bayville Syrins" to begin with, so they weren't overly concerned that he would notice them starting again... this time as a singing group. They'd had to replace Jean, of course. For one thing, she'd become obsessed with playing that game with Scott. For another thing, Jean was good at many things, but singing was not one of them. Seriously, she was terrible. None of them wanted to tell her though, so they just snuck out without her.


	6. Waking the kids,6:15 am

THE BET: Beginning

Disclaimer : I do not own X-men Evolution or any of the related characters.

Story line:

The X-kids have been driving the adults insane with their misbehavior, Logan challenges the Professor that he can get them to behave better than Charles, but the kids seemed determined to prove him wrong.

Chapter Five:

Day One

Waking the kids,6:15 am

Logan went from Kitty's room to Tabitha's. The girl had returned to the mansion a few months prior following the whole "Apocalypse Thing" as Logan referred to it. Since her return she had mostly behaved. With a few exceptions. One of these was her refusal to even attempt to keep her room clean.

Fortunately, Logan had many arguments with her over this in the past, and so was well prepared for the mess that awaited him in there. Unfortunately, it had been about a week since he'd last inspected her room (and given her extra DR sessions as a result) and somehow things had gotten much wore since then.

Like a few of the boys' rooms, there were clothes everywhere. This Logan could deal with, even if it did annoy him. Also like several other rooms in the mansion, there were personal items all over the place.

Logan opened the door, fully expecting to have to wake the girl since there was no light coming from under the door. What he received was a ear piercing scream as the light from the hallway hit a clothesline of papers hanging in the room. Tabitha had recently taken up photography as her latest soon to be abandoned hobby.

Charles encouraged all of the children to have hobbies and freely paid for any equipment they may need. So far Tabitha had abandoned knitting after buying 50 rolls of yarn and knitting one inch of a scarf. Astronomy after a week of stargazing with a brand new telescope. Guitar,Violin, and Flute after three sessions each ( this one Logan was glad for). Ballet after two lessons. And pottery. She had managed to make him a very nice ashtray (She'd tried to make a mug, it turned out wrong so she relabeled it).

Logan was unaware that she had picked up another new hobby, until she screamed. As Tabitha freaked out over her lost photos, Logan tried to be sympathetic. He decided to let her skip the morning's session after a few minutes of her ignoring him. Clearly the girl needed time to pull herself together. At least he hadn't been injured this time.

6:18 am

Rhane bit him!Just when Logan thought he may escape waking the girls without injury, he entered Rhane's room. She was curled at the foot of her bed, apparently sleeping peacefully, in wolf form. Logan, having a long established understanding of wolves (though he doesn't remember it) woke her cautiously to avoid startling the feral girl. That was his intention at least. As he quietly said. "Rhane, it's time to get up." in a tone as close to gentle as Logan possessed, Rhane's eyes snapped open.

Before he could react, the wolf-girl had her jaws around his arm. She then realized who it was she had bitten, and that she had in fact bitten someone. She panicked. Logan screamed. She bit him second time, from a combination of panic and being startled by the scream.

Rhane now realized how serious this was. She hadn't meant to bite her teacher (twice), but she was afraid he wouldn't see it that way. If she let go, he may attack her. If she held on he may attack her. Then there was the matter of her punishment. Surely the longer she held on, the longer she would be grounded. Could she get away with claiming the wolf side took over and she had no memory of any of this? No, Xavier could look into her mind and check. While she had no idea what she was doing to begin with, now she'd spent too long thinking about it all.

Logan was talking to her, trying to get her to calm down, when Rhane realized she'd been tuning him out she panicked further. Clearly she had no choice now. Rhane released his arm long enough to jump over him, before biting at his heels and running through the open door, down the stairs, and jumping out of a open window in the living room. She then ran around the house and into the woods before finally returning to her human form and climbing a tree.

Surely Logan would find her, but maybe he would let her be instead of climbing the tree himself. He was rather heavy after all. At least this was Rhane's hope. Meanwhile Logan decided to cut his losses with the girl actually up and active. Shaking his head and wiping blood off his now healed arm, Logan moved on to Amara's room.

He sighed before he opened the door. One didn't need enhanced hearing to know that not only was Amara up, but she was fighting loudly with Jubilee. Logan did have enhanced hearing however, so their argument was already painfully loud before he was near the door, let alone actually opening it. He considered waiting a bit longer to see if they settled the matter themselves, but he'd heard them since he arrived in the girls' wing a few minutes earlier, it didn't seem likely that waiting longer would work.

In fact, if anything things had escalated further in the last few minutes. He opened the door, already yelling for them to stop fighting, and was hit in the chest by Jubilee's powers. He grunted, but managed to stay standing. Neither girl noticed him, as they continued to fight each other. Amara hit Jubilee, Jubilee kicked Amara, and then they both screamed again before diving at each other. Logan pulled the girls apart and yelled. "Save it for the danger room. Get going ,now."

The girls glared at him, but both left the room, grumbling about how unfair he was being. Their fight over who 's favorite band was better. Logan shook his head once more, and went to wake the last student. He'd saved Rogue for last, no one liked waking her. He'd hoped she'd woken on her own while he was dealing with everyone else, because if she'd managed to sleep through all of that she'd probably had another bad night.

Logan opened Rogue's door, to find her buried under her comforter apparently deep asleep. As previously mentioned, Rogue had been sneaking out for months. The key to her ability to never get caught was the well known fact that she frequently suffered nightmares and therefore was known for sleeping in. It was something that had been improving lately,unknown to the adults.

When Logan asked her if she was alright, she groaned, and gave the impression that she was extremely tired. It helped that she actually was tired. Unlike the other kids Logan had woken today, he actually had sympathy for Rogue. As far as he knew, she'd had another bad night. Rogue made a production of groaning as she sat up slowly.

"Oh no. Did I miss the Session? I set my alarm so I wouldn't forget." Rogue said as she started to climb out of bed.

"Go ahead and get some sleep kid, we'll reschedule for this afternoon. No reason for ya to kill yourself after one of those nights." Logan said. He was thinking about how bad it would be to push her when Charles wasn't around to offer her psyche maintenance. After insisting a second time to Rogue's protest Logan left the room, completely unaware of the fact that he had just been manipulated. Again.


	7. Starting the Day,7:45am

THE BET: Beginning

Disclaimer : I do not own X-men Evolution or any of the related characters.

Story line:

The X-kids have been driving the adults insane with their misbehavior, Logan challenges the Professor that he can get them to behave better than Charles, but the kids seemed determined to prove him wrong.

Chapter Six:

Day One

Starting the Day,7:45am

After everyone had eaten,showered,dressed, and otherwise killed time they arrived at the Danger Room at 7:45. Tabitha, Rhane, and Rogue were absent, but no one mentioned this. Logan counted it as a win. Sure, they were late according to his plan, but they were exactly on time according to routine.

Logan wasn't going to admit Charles had a point this early in the bet simply because the kids had given him a bit of trouble getting out of bed, after all, they were used to Charles going easy on them, it may take a day or two to get them used to new management. The point was that they were all here and ready! Well most of them were here... a some of them seemed ready... Logan decided to call off the session.

Jean and Scott were still distracted trying to figure out where he hid their game. Kurt and Bobby were glaring at each other, as were Amara and Jubilee. Jamie was mumbling about an arch enemy,while the other boys tried to stand as far from him as possible. The girls all looked like they were about to fall asleep any moment. Clearly putting them through a battle simulation was not in anyone's best interest at the moment. Logan declared that it had been rescheduled for that afternoon, and everyone was free to go.

After they all left, Logan made sure to write Charles a text telling him the kids all just left the Danger room and that there had been no complaints or injuries. If Charles assumed that they had done a session based on that text it would be his own fault for assuming. Logan hadn't lied after all, he simply had left out a minor detail. Never mind that Logan worded it in such a way to imply they had finished their morning practice early. Determined to ensure Charles noticed the early hour,Logan rushed upstairs.

Inside Logan's closet was a small (about 20) collection of cell phones,just waiting for his SIM card. You never knew,after all, when you may be run over... or dropped down an elevator shaft...Or set on fire...Or electrocuted... or hit the end button to hard. Things happened around here, and often. Logan couldn't be bothered going to the phone store in the mall every few days. The idea of it made both him and the clercks shudder, therefore once a month he refilled this box. He set up the new phone quickly, and sent off the message to Charles before any more time could pass.

After receiving a response, in which Charles congratulated him on keeping the kids under control so far, Logan headed upstairs himself. He decided the best way to salvage the day was to keep the kids busy, so he was going to suggest that they spend the day in the rec room playing with the new game system Charles had bought them last week. Logan even decided that he would set up a tournament of sorts so that he could convince himself it was a training effort.

He arrived upstairs, and found none of the kids on the main floor. He knew none had left the property, because he'd locked the gates and set an alert to his phone if any of them tried, so they had to be in the house somewhere. There or the yard, but he couldn't imagine what they'd be doing outside this early.

With this in mind, he decided to use there intercom system to call them all downstairs. A method that was generally very effective in getting their attention, which if he had thought of earlier may have saved him a couple shirts and saved the kids a few emotional scars... oh well, to late now.

With in a few minutes everyone aside from Rogue was gathered in the rec room (though Tabitha was still clearly upset and Rhane was edgy) and playing the new game. Logan was pleased with a job well done and fully expected the rest of the day to run smoothly.

What he hadn't counted on was Charles bragging. Charles had called his old friends, Raven and Erik – otherwise known as Mystique and Magneto- and told them all about how he had managed to swindle a vacation. He had gone on to point out Logan's apparent success at keeping the children in line.

Charles wasn't the only one who felt they needed a vacation. Raven had a houseful of destructive and hyper teenage boys(and Wanda), and Erik's previous plotting had somehow managed to leave him with two wards of his own. Therefore, shortly after Charles ended the call, Raven and Erik both decided Charles had had a brilliant plan.

Logan had just sat down for his much deserved cup of coffee when the alert on his phone informed him that the front gate had opened. Logan sighed heavily before heading toward the front door assuming that one or more of the kids had decided to go out after all. What he wasn't expecting was to open the door to find six boys, a girl, and seven duffle bags on the porch.

"What's going on here?" Logan asked. None of the kids looked happy to be there, but Remy sullenly handed him a note. Logan took it reluctantly, not sure that he wanted to actually know.

The note was short, it read simply ' Charles said you were doing a great job watching over the X-men, we decided to let you try to get our crews in line as well. See you in a week. Raven and Erik.' This was about the time Logan began to wonder if he had somehow been tricked into all of this. John whining that he hadn't had breakfast yet, followed by Lance,Todd, and Fred agreeing that they were hungry distracted him from this thought however. It wouldn't be the last time it occurred to him over the next few days, that was for certain.

With a heavy sigh, Logan debated if sending the boys home would be better or worse for Bayville than keeping them here... on one hand Bayville probably wouldn't survive these kids unsupervised. On the other hand, he wasn't sure he could survive extra kids. Wait, he thought, that was probably Charles' plan. He wanted Logan to admit defeat and win the bet. There was no way Logan was going to just hand over the win like that! No! If taking care of a few extra kids is what it took to win,so be it. Now to give them breakfast.

While Logan was deciding all of this, he failed to notice the boys file past him into the kitchen while Wanda continued to glare at the foyer in general since she had been woken to come over here. The sounds of the kitchen being raided brought Logan out of his reverie as he rushed to the kitchen to make sure they didn't completely empty the pantry.


	8. Starting the Day,8:00am

THE BET: Beginning

Disclaimer : I do not own X-men Evolution or any of the related characters.

Story line:

The X-kids have been driving the adults insane with their misbehavior, Logan challenges the Professor that he can get them to behave better than Charles, but the kids seemed determined to prove him wrong.

Chapter Seven:

Day One

Starting the Day,8:00am

Those boys had managed to eat nearly everything in the pantry. Logan had been absolutely shocked, then Jubilee reminded him that Saturday was shopping day. Normally Ororo took care of the groceries. Logan was not known for his patience, and lines and crowds required patience. Logan made a list of what he felt they needed, then went in search of a 'volunteer' to do the shopping for him.

Wanda was still glaring in the foyer, now joined by Todd who seemed determined to get her to hit him. As well as Lance, who seemed to be trying to get Todd to come with him into another room, and John who seemed to be encouraging Wanda to go ahead a hex Todd. Logan walked past them all, deciding that they would probably just cause a scene if he sent them. He did however inform them that if they broke anything they would spend the afternoon locked in the danger room.

He then walked into the Rec room where he had left the majority of the X-men earlier. They were still absorbed, and he decided after a brief mental debate that he did not want to break the spell the tv had over them. They didn't even seem to notice the extra kids yet and he didn't want to think about the reaction to learning that there was no food in the pantry aside from what needed to be cooked. He did notice that Fred had joined them, as had Rhane and Tabitha. Jubilee walked past him with the last of the popcorn and sat between Fred and Rhane.

Logan did a mental checklist. That left Rogue who was probably still asleep, and that one boy... Remy according to the notes on Magneto's crew. Logan remembered that Remy was also a thief, and was upstairs wandering around somewhere. Logan decided tracking the boy down was more important than the grocery shopping for now.

He checked the guest rooms first, making a mental note to assign the kids rooms later as he went. Then he checked the teachers rooms and the library. He wasn't searching blindly, he was following the boy's trail. Next he searched the boys' wing, before heading to the girls' wing with a growl. First thing's first he needed to make sure these kids knew the rules, including respecting each other's privacy.

He finally found Remy in Rogue's room. She was sitting up on the bed, still in her pajamas and Remy was sitting at her desk. She had a scowl on her face which Logan would like to believe meant she had been telling the boy off for invading her room...or kidnapping her a few months ago, but Rogue always had a scowl until she had coffee these days so it was hard to say for certain.

Logan decided he didn't really want to know how that conversation was going anymore than the stand off going on in the foyer. Instead he said. "Okay. I need two volunteers to go to the grocery store."

"Us?" Rogue said, disturbed at the idea of being forced to spend part of her Saturday stuck in a crowded store.

"Thank you, here's the list, and the card." Logan said, intentionally taking her question as an offer. "Try not to go overboard on the junk."

Before either of them could protest Logan walked out of the room confidant that he had taken care of that problem and now he could relax for a awhile. He made it halfway down the stairs before Wanda's screech and an earthquake reminded him that he still needed to deal with the kids in the foyer.

Logan picked himself back up and was grateful that he'd gone over the railing instead of through it as he growled at those responsible for the latest attempt on his life. Lance and Todd managed to look scared and apologetic, but Wanda was still glaring and John was laughing at the sight of Logan flying down the stairs. "Right. Wanda,John. You will be joining Rogue and Remy with the shopping. Todd, Lance come with me."

All four groaned, Todd and Lance because they were sure this meant something terrible, and John and Wanda because they were wishing they were Todd and Lance right now. All four were convinced they'd received the worse end of it.

Wanda opened her mouth to protest,as Rogue and Remy appeared at the top of the stairs. Rogue had managed to chance,but was not wearing any makeup. The sight of her so startled Lance and Todd that they gratefully ran after Logan. John laughed at their reaction as Wanda and Rogue rolled their eyes. Just because she usually wore heavy makeup didn't mean she always had to wear it after all. Some days she just couldn't be bothered. Like mornings when her room was invaded by annoying guys and she was forced to socialize.

"Let's get this over with." Remy grumbled. The idea of getting seen doing something so pitiful as buying groceries raked on his nerves. He had an image to maintain. Paying for things ruined that image. He might still be able to pull it off though, as he thought about it, after all they would be paying with the Xaviers' expense card. As long as no one figured out he was staying here at the moment he could always claim he'd stolen the card. Besides what were the odds of seeing one of his cousins at the Bayville Grocery anyway? They all lived in Louisiana. They never had to know about this at all, and therefore would never get a chance to tease him about it. Satisfied that he had solved his problem he followed the others out to the car feeling slightly better about this trip,accept for the whole being stuck in the store on his day off thing.

Logan,meanwhile, returned his attention to the other boys, who he had drug into the kitchen to make them clean up the mess their breakfast had created. Lance and Todd, now out of Wanda's sight, were suddenly much more bold. They complained loudly not only about being stuck at the mansion but made to do chores. Logan growled loudly at them which wasn't nearly as effective as it normally was. They did live with an insane girl who could turn their livers into shoelaces (or last least she claimed she could and would on a regular basis) so hearing a wordless growl barely registered to them. Logan shook his head. This bet just got a lot harder.

A/N: Sorry for missing yesterday, I'll post two tonight to make up for it.


	9. Shopping, 9:00am

THE BET: Beginning

Disclaimer : I do not own X-men Evolution or any of the related characters.

Story line:

The X-kids have been driving the adults insane with their misbehavior, Logan challenges the Professor that he can get them to behave better than Charles, but the kids seemed determined to prove him wrong.

Chapter Eight:

Day One

Shopping, 9:00am

Remy,Rogue,John, and Wanda arrived at the local store with no issues. Each of them took one part of the list in an attempt to finish faster and hopefully have time left in their day. They agreed to meet back in front of the registers in thirty minutes before taking their leave.

That's when things started to go wrong. It began with John, who realized upon looking down at his part of the list that he had been given the meat and deli section. This was bad and he knew it. Remy would have known it too had they bothered to look at who was given what. John had been forbidden from going into this section of the store by Magneto after their leader had been forced to pay the damages. Twice.

The thing was John was always fine until he saw the lobster tank. He'd always wanted a pet lobster. No one really knew why, not even John, but it was still true. Seeing his preferred pet in a tank to be sold for food caused the same reaction every time today was no exception. John had managed to put everything on his list in the cart and was proudly walking toward the front of the store after only ten minutes into the trip.

Then as John walked past the seafood section he noticed the lobster tank. He tried to resist temptation, and succeeded for nearly a full minute before the spell was broken by a call for security over the PA system. He then decided if they were busting him either way he might as well. Before he could think further about it (or anyone could notice him) John ran full speed with his cart into the tank.

The tank shattered. Lobsters and water went everywhere while John cackled and screamed. "You're free now mates! Free to take over the world! GO, fulfill your destiny. Soon the world shall know of the glory of the mighty lobster, and will finally bow in your -eep"

John saw the security guards headed in his direction and decided it may be best to make his escape, so as not to hinder his lobster friends and to avoid punishment from Magneto once more. He ducked down behind a shelf and made his way to the front of the store with an armload of randomly grabbed items from his cart.

Remy had been in the next section filling his own cart with canned goods and mumbling about the lack of culinary skills he'd found himself surrounded by since moving to Bayville. He sincerely hoped the X-men had better cooks than the Brotherhood or the Acolytes. He too heard the call for security, and sighed in irritation. Clearly John had spotted the lobsters again. Really,he thought, John needed to deal with this obsession before he got himself in real trouble.

As if to prove his point a tide of lobster filled water washed down his aisle. Remy shook his head,checked his list and started toward the front of the store. He needed to be away from this before he was noticed and blamed for it. It wasn't until the guards came by a second time that he realized that originally they had gone the opposite direction as John. Now he was worried that something had come up with one of the girls. Honestly, didn't any of them understand the idea of 'low profile'?

With this new concern in mind Remy abandoned his mostly empty cart in search of the others. He saw John headed toward the check out area and assumed that he had already caused whatever damage he was going to cause for the day. Unlike last time when he'd attempted to lead a lobster revolution that had resulted in them all being banned from the store for six months. Technically, now that Remy thought about it, John was still banned. He probably should have mentioned that to Wolverine when the teacher had 'asked' them to do the shopping... oh well, too late now.

While Remy was busy worrying about another lobster revolution Wanda was busy threatening the security guards. It all started as she was angrily filling her cart with dairy products on the list. Well somewhat on the list, she'd just glanced at it then began randomly throwing items into the cart and near the cart and at one point on some other random shopper. This was why the guards had been called because the other woman did not apericate a quart of Greek yogurt in her hair at all. The guards had arrived and asked Wanda politely to stop throwing food. Wanda had responded. "Don't tell me how to live my life,you aren't my father!"

This statement made no sense to anyone involved including Wanda, but she stuck with it. When the guard then informed her it was his job to ask people to stop causing a scene Wanda took offense. She began chucking sticks of butter at the guard and any customers that happened to be in range. More guards arrived on the scene to ask her to leave quietly, which caused her to respond by throwing a few more quarts of yogurt on the floor before calmly stating that she never wanted to go shopping in the first place, grabbing two gallons of milk from the full cart and walking away.

The guards started to follow her when they received the call that the lobster tank had been broken and lobsters were all over the meat department. Since the girl seemed to be leaving on her own they rushed off in the other direction, missing Remy as he walked down the aisle.

When John arrived with his cart and Wanda with her two gallons of milk they found Rogue already waiting at the check out area. Remy joined them a moment later empty handed. Rogue raised an eyebrow at the others before shrugging. She decided she didn't want to know. Instead she grabbed the stuff out of John's cart and told the others to go wait in the van.

All in all this was an important lesson. Not for the kids who learned nothing, but for Logan. He had given them a complete shopping list for a week's worth of food for the household. They returned home after a side trip to get ice cream, with two gallons of now warm milk, a box of chocolate cereal, warm ground beef, three boxes of ramen noodles, two bags of snack size mars bars, and twenty cases of soda.

To further bring home the mistake he made in sending them unattended, Remy proceeded to empty his pockets he had somehow amazingly managed to stuff a grand total of twenty eight cans into his coat, which was his entire list. The shopping cart of canned goods he'd abandoned was just a distraction in case anyone was watching. Logan shook his head at them all before dismissing them. Now he had to figure out what to make them all for dinner, and how to get to the store himself without the kids burning don the house or something while he was gone. Not trusting the tempature of the perishables, Logan threw out the meat and milk. He then remembered he needed to get the charge card back from the kids before they decided to go on a spending spree or something. It was going to be a long week.


	10. Lunch time 11:00am

THE BET: Beginning

Disclaimer : I do not own X-men Evolution or any of the related characters.

Story line:

The X-kids have been driving the adults insane with their misbehavior, Logan challenges the Professor that he can get them to behave better than Charles, but the kids seemed determined to prove him wrong.

Chapter Nine:

Day One

Lunch time 11:00am

After the disaster that had come from sending the kids to the store, Logan decided to make lunch himself instead of assigning one of the kids. He was in the middle of boiling the noodles (since ramen noodles were the only thing he could make at the moment) when he received a call from the store.

"Hello, is this the Xavier Institute?"the voice on the other end asked.

"... When I answered the phone I said 'Xavier's'... what else would this be?" Logan responded after glaring at the phone.

"We had an incident this morning,involving a boy banned from our location, as well as a girl who made a scene. The clerk who rang up the Xavier's order said that she saw your staff member talking to these two just before checking out."

"First of all, that girl is a student not staff. Secondly just because she talked to someone don't mean she was involved somehow."

"Security footage shows they all left together in a van marked Xavier's Institute."

"Are you accusing my student of something sir? Because I can assure you only the girl in question is on our rolls. Perhaps she gave these other kids a ride home? After all that would be the nice thing to do."

"I'm afraid we are going to have to charge you for the damages."

"Fine. Whatever."

"Also, both of the two mentioned before are banned from the location, though the boy already was."

"Okay."

"The other two are also on probation status, which is to say when they come in they will be watched."

"Wait didn't you just say that she didn't do anything wrong? And now you're going to punish her for being in the store at the same time as someone else and giving them a ride? That's discrimination! You're just punishing her for being a mutant!"

"She's a mutant?"

"Like you didn't already know that! NONE of us will be shopping at your store in the future! "

Before the man could respond Logan hung up on him. Now he had to figure out a good excuse for not shopping in the local grocery store that didn't involve telling Xavier anything that just happened. He was trying to think of a good excuse when he remembered the noodles. Luckily they had only slightly over cooked, so he called the kids to lunch, before heading to the office to make a new shopping list and think of a valid excuse for Charles.

He had just sat down to write his list when Scott knocked on his door. With a heavy sigh he set down his pen and told the boy to come in. Scott entered and stood there for a moment waiting for Logan to invite him to sit. When Logan just stared at him, he decided it would be for the best not to further irritate their current leader.

"Are you sure it's wise to have the Brotherhood unattended in the kitchen? What if they're up to something?" Scott asked, more out of a sense of obligation as team leader than actual concern...right now he was preoccupied and wasn't concerned with anything beyond getting his game back. Which was his real reason for bothering Logan. He was the distraction.

"They can't possibly cause trouble in a roomful of X-men , with me twenty feet away." Logan said, though he was not nearly as confidant as he sounded.

"They could start a fire. Or kidnap one of us. Or cause a riot. Or steal our secrets. Or replace one of us with a shape shifter for their own plans. Or-"

"Enough! What's the likelihood any of that could ever happen?"

"All of it already happened before!" Scott said smugly crossing his arms.

"When did they ever catch our kitchen on fire" Logan said trying to regain control of the conversation.

"Just before I knocked. That what I came to tell you." Scott said.

"What?! Why didn't you open with a fire in the house?!" Logan demanded as he jumped to his feet and ran from the room.

Logan ran directly to the kitchen, stopping only to grab a fire extinguisher, and rushed into the room fully expecting the worst at this point. He was shocked however at the amount of damage. Which was to say there wasn't actually any damage. There was a slight scorch mark just behind the stove. The kids were all sitting around the table as if nothing was amiss, despite the smell of smoke.

Logan looked directly at John and said. "What did you do?"

"I put out the fire that you started mate." John said proudly.

"I'm not the fire-starter here!"

"Neither is John, he manipulates fire. He doesn't start it. Besides you started the fire by leaving an oven mitt on a hot burner." Wanda said.

"...I did no such thing!" Logan said, not sure at all but not willing to let them have a win either. If they won once they would start to walk all over you. Look at Charles!

Logan decided that the easiest way to win this argument was to get out of it before any of them tried any further counter-arguments. So he announced they were all grounded for the evening and walked out of the room amid their protests. He did notice that neither Scott nor Jean had been in the kitchen, so instead of returning to his office he went in search of the pair.

Scott was standing just outside of the kitchen, to distract Logan further by continuing his complaints about their house guests. Scott trailed after Logan complaining loudly about the brotherhood and acolytes until Logan yelled that he was joining the others in grounding. Scott felt it was worth it because Jean informed him just then that she had smuggled the game out and left the box so Logan wouldn't know. Logan was about to follow Scott, a little suspicious of the boy's behavior, when he heard a loud crashing in the direction of the rec room. As soon as Logan looked in the direction, Scott slipped around the corner.

Logan stood in the hall, undecided for a moment on which issue to address first, when he heard whispering from the rec room... clearly it was the bigger issue at the moment. Whatever Scott was up to...well Logan assumed it did not involve property damage, whatever Jamie and Rhane were up to sounded expensive, and possibly irreplacable.


	11. Afternoon troubles,3pm

THE BET: Beginning

Disclaimer : I do not own X-men Evolution or any of the related characters.

Story line:

The X-kids have been driving the adults insane with their misbehavior, Logan challenges the Professor that he can get them to behave better than Charles, but the kids seemed determined to prove him wrong.

Chapter Ten:

Day One

Afternoon troubles,3pm

Clearly these children were trying to kill him...or make him lose the bet. Either way, Logan was fed up. After he'd cleaned up the mess Rhane and Jamie had made in the rec room (apparently they were couch bowling, whatever that was, Logan decided he didn't want to know.) Logan had attempted to keep them all occupied by feeding them, while he ordered the groceries online for curbside pick up.

Charles felt this method was inappropriate because it didn't teach the children responsibility or- Logan wasn't sure what the 'or' was he always stopped listening about there. Plus he was convinced it was just an excuse to send the kids away for a couple of hours and had nothing to do with a lesson. Logan felt the trouble this morning was not a fair trade off for a slightly quieter house though.

While he was in the office ordering the food, the kids managed to Flood the ballroom and knock down the chandelier. He still wasn't sure how they managed that, and he asked them to explain themselves- twice. One of the kids, he was pretty sure it was Jamie, added a few items to the grocery list while he was busy yelling that they all needed to clean up the water. He wouldn't find out about that part until much later however.

Logan then returned to the office and finalized the order, before once more being distracted when he heard a loud crash in the front hall which turned out to be several statues being knocked over while Jamie and Rhane, now joined by Bobby,Kurt, Jubilee, and Amara were playing 'Hall bowling'. This was when Logan decided that they needed something to do to keep them out of trouble.

Logan declared over the intercom that all of the kids needed to be in the danger room with in the next few minutes. An hour later, at one, Logan finally managed to get them all into the room. Except for Lance who claimed Logan had no authority over him.

Lance suffered greatly for this assumption. To hear him tell it, Logan had murdered him, resurrected him, then murdered him a second time. In reality, Logan had insisted he wear a uniform and sent him through the course alone. Though if Logan had thought about it, he would have been impressed the boy sounded so much like himself...or annoyed he did.

While Lance was dodging and weaving his way through the course, the others were busy on the team mission in the danger room, which included an insane amount of paint-balls. Remy came out clean. He was the only one who did. This did not please Logan. After all, all his team had been training on this particular run for the last week, they should be able to do it by now. At least without being completely covered in paint.

Logan gave a very long lecture about this, before releasing them to the showers. Remy smirking in the background and the Brotherhood muttering about the unfairness of it all. When Logan checked the time, it was already a quarter to three and he was feeling rather good about the day. He'd managed to make it to mid afternoon, and had worn them out enough that he was confidant that they wouldn't knock down the house.

Fifteen minutes later, he was convinced they were trying to kill him.

In the short period of time, Bobby and Jubilee once more broke the elevator with him in it. Kitty, Jean, Amara, and Tabitha had escaped the grounds altogether. Scott and Lance had gotten into a fist fight over who was a better leader. Remy had unlocked every door in the house, and John hacked the computer.

Fred and Todd had gotten into the cookies. Pietro and Wanda were in a screaming match. Piotr was missing. Rogue was scowling at everyone in general and Remy in particular because he'd unlocked her door. Jamie and Rhane knocked Logan down the basement stairs on his way up from the fall by 'stair bowling' (They really needed a new game) and someone, no one would admit to doing it, someone had contacted everyone on Logan's friends list, and invited them over for a party this evening.

Logan would not admit defeat this early! He wasn't going to admit it at all, but defiantly not on the first day. First he broke up the fights, sending Pietro and Scott to pick up the groceries. Then he demanded Remy hand over his lock picks, told Rogue to take a nap, insisted that Lance go find the missing girls, and sent John to put out the fire in the basement caused by the elevator falling. He then forbid any form of indoor bowling, separated Bobby and Jubilee, and assigned chores to all of them to get the house back in order.

Had he been thinking clearly, he would have sent someone else to put out the fire. He would have done a lot of things differently. Like agreeing to this bet to begin with, he wondered briefly if he had been tricked into this somehow. He didn't have time to dwell on such thoughts though, because soon he received a call from the local police department demanding he come pick up his wards, because Scott and Pietro had gotten themselves in trouble by fighting in the parking lot of the grocery store.


	12. Ordering In is not admitting defeat

THE BET: Beginning

Disclaimer : I do not own X-men Evolution or any of the related characters.

Story line:

The X-kids have been driving the adults insane with their misbehavior, Logan challenges the Professor that he can get them to behave better than Charles, but the kids seemed determined to prove him wrong.

Chapter Eleven:

Day One

Ordering In is not admitting defeat(Dinnertime),5pm

Ordering pizza was not admitting defeat. This was what Logan would maintain until his dying day, many, many, many,many,many, many, many, many, many, many, many(you get the point) many, years from now. No ordering pizza was the wisest move one could make when one looked at the chore rota and realized with a great deal of fright that Kitty Pride was in charge of cooking dinner.

So, after Logan recovered from his latest stroke (or panic attack, he wasn't sure which it had been) he ordered dinner and informed a now pouting Kitty that he had done so while ignoring the huge pot of gray mess that was boiling on the stove. He had assumed it was soup until she informed him proudly that it was chili.

Logan stifled the shudder that went through him at the idea of eating THAT and patted her on the head. "I decided we all deserved a treat tonight kid. You love pizza." Logan said, in an attempt to spare the girl's feelings.

He'd almost managed to get away without any tears on the girl's part when he heard a high pitched scream coming from the hallway. Both he and Kitty ran to the door to find out who was being attacked, only to discover Bobby and Ray attempting to comfort a near hysterical Kurt and Scott.

"They looked at the duty log and discovered it was Kitty's turn. Then Bobby freaked out about how last time she forgot to take the little pouch thing out of the chicken." Jean explained. " When he reminded Kurt of this Kurt and Scott both started wailing. They don't want to spend another weekend in the medlab."

Kitty's eyes filled with tears of rage. "Like it was a one time mistake! Anyone could do it!" Kitty yelled as she stomped her foot. " I'm usually a great cook aren't I Mr. Logan?"

Now Logan faced an impossible choice. Food poisoning of the entire populace of the mansion- which may cost him the bet- or Kitty's tears- which usually turned into wails. It was hard to decide which was going to be worse. Thankfully he was saved from answering at all by the arrival of the pizza.

When the other kids realized they would be eating take out instead of Kitty's latest experiment calm was restored. Logan began to relax, even Kitty seemed distracted by the arrival of food. In fact, she seemed to completely forget she had been cooking at all. Logan paid for the food, and called the kids to dinner. Then he tried to sneak away to quietly dispose of Kitty's pot of 'chili'. Unfortunately, Kitty noticed his departure. She walked into the kitchen after him ,as he lifted the heavy pot off the stove.

"What are you doing with my chili?" Kitty asked.

"I was putting it in the fridge for tomorrow" Logan lied smoothly. Hopefully the girl would believe him and that would be the end of it.

Kitty nodded, and was about to walk back out of the room, when the bottom of the pot fell off, spreading gray mush all over the floor. Something in either the ingredients or the amount of heat she'd used had caused the chili to eat the bottom of the pot away.

They looked at each other for a moment, Kitty's eyes began to fill with tears once more, Logan panicked. It was the only excuse he come up with afterward. His one true weakness was tears. He'd thought it was his lack of memory or perhaps anger control, but no this moment showed his that it must be tears. It was the only way to explain why he had assured the girl that she could try again tomorrow.

As Kitty happily skipped out of the kitchen, and Logan wondered how he had managed to lose control of the conversation so quickly, a loud crash sounded from the dining-room, reminding him that he had left them unattended.

Logan rushed into the room, to discover Ray and Bobby yelling loudly with Ray in a headlock as he attempted to keep the last piece of sausage and mushroom pizza out of Bobby's reach. Jean was attempting to settle the argument by offering Bobby a piece of the sausage and pepper pizza instead, while holding the box above Jamie's head as he tried to grab the pizza from her instead. Scott and Rogue were arguing over who should get the last bread stick, Scott had it in his hand, but Rogue had removed her gloves so the argument could go either way.

Remy and John were taking bets on the outcome of the three fights while the others were handing over money to them. Logan sighed heavily. "All right, everyone. You've all had enough pizza, so no one needs the last slice. Boys, betting is not allowed inside the mansion under any conditions (he ignored his own bet at this point- adults are often hypocrites after all). I want this mess cleaned up and everyone upstairs in the next ten minutes is that understood?"

Silence descended as pizza boxes were returned to the table, children pouted and everyone started gathering the trash. Logan relaxed as they all filed out of the room, thinking perhaps they'd started to listen at last. Then he heard Piotr state "I placed a wager on Logan winning all three fights, I won." and Kitty giggle in response.

Logan groaned. Then decided to pick his battles and pretend he hadn't heard the young man. He finally sat down to eat his own slice of pizza, looking through box after box in hopes of finding some left. Unfortunately, somehow one of the kids had managed to smuggle the two pieces that had caused the fight earlier, leaving nothing but a few crusts and one very battered small slice of cheese pizza. Logan sniffed it, wondering how many kids had held it, and if it was safe to eat. He decided to risk it, and took a bite before remembering he hadn't ordered any cheese pizzas. Whoever had left this slice had taken the other toppings off and left it behind.

Disgruntled at this, Logan decided he'd earned a real dinner. Te kids were all hiding out like he'd ordered, and he was unlikely to be missed, so he drove into town to buy sushi. After all, there was no way they could cause that much damage in the time it took him to pick up take out.


	13. Bedtime!,10pm

THE BET: Beginning

Disclaimer : I do not own X-men Evolution or any of the related characters.

Story line:

The X-kids have been driving the adults insane with their misbehavior, Logan challenges the Professor that he can get them to behave better than Charles, but the kids seemed determined to prove him wrong.

Epilogue

Day One

10pm

They were all in bed. Logan had made sure of it. He'd locked every bedroom door in the house, removed all cell phones and laptops. He'd stolen all the remotes. It would have taken too long to take the tvs and game systems, so he took the remotes instead.

This was their punishment for the mess they had made while he'd been grabbing his dinner. When he'd returned with his bag of food, they had all been out on the front lawn, covered in mud. The bottom floor of the mansion had been a well. Mud, water, and for some reason he decided not to ask about, Jello.

He had decided then to eat his dinner in the safety of his car before dealing with the kids. He went back out to his car and locked the doors, intent on eating in had been a mistake. While he sat there happily munching on a tuna roll, suddenly a large splatter of mud hit his windshield. He startled, dropping his roll, which just served to anger him.

The kids didn't seem to notice his level of rage as he climbed from the car, only to be hit in the face with a water balloon filled with Jello. At least he now knew the answer to the Jello question. "What he- What do you think you are doing?" Logan yelled as he wiped Jello off of his face.

"Water fight." Jamie replied, throwing another balloon in Scott's direction. Scott shot it with his powers causing it to explode all over Tabitha instead.

"Water doesn't include Jello." Logan said as he watched John and Wanda shove Jean into the fountain, dumping more packets of Jello in after her.

"Water fighting with plain water is for amateurs." Remy said as he ran by throwing random balloons at several others.

"... Because water balloon fights are now a sport?" Logan asked, but no one answered. Louder, he demanded they stop and clean up the mess they'd created. He was ignored again. He then threatened to lock them all in the Danger room for an hour if they didn't do as he ordered.

This got their attention, and soon they were all cleaning the mess they had made. Logan relaxed, no longer fearful of losing the bet. Just when he thought he might be in the clear, he heard them arguing again. With a heavy sigh (he felt like he was doing an awful lot of sighing today) he went in search of the latest problem.

As it turned out, the fight was between the Acolytes and Brotherhood over who had been responsible for cleaning up the Foyer and front parlor. Pietro and Lance maintained that since Remy had been the one to bring Jello into the mix, the Acolyts should have to be the ones that cleaned it up. Remy and John maintained that since Todd was the one that brought the fight inside, it should be the Brotherhood.

Logan intended to tell both groups to clean it together when Scott and Jean decided to get in the mix by stating that since Todd and Remy had started the whole Jello in the house issue, then the X-men shouldn't have to clean any of it at all. This was countered by both other groups with pointing out that they never would have been in a fight at all if Bobby and Jamie hadn't decided to drop water balloons off the balcony onto Wanda to begin with.

"That's hardly the point!" Jean continued, still not noticing Logan. " If you hadn't made such a huge mess, Scott and I would be playing our game right now instead of digging Jello out of a 18th century vase."

Logan felt like his head was going to explode. They were playing that game again! Worse they were telling others about it! This was a disaster waiting to happen. " What game is that?" John asked with interest.

Jean opened her mouth to reply when Logan stepped forward. "Do not speak it's name! Do not think it's name! Do not invite others to join you. I already removed it from the house once, I will remove it again. Consider yourself grounded for the rest of the week. Everyone made the mess, everyone cleans it"

Everyone began yelling at once, either about being grounded or having to clean. In an act of uncharacteristic defiance, Jean announced both the name of the forbidden game, and an invitation for the others to join them. Scott, Lance,Remy, Pietro, John, and Wanda all screamed back and forth over who was to blame for the entire day, and Logan saw red.

Before any of the kids really knew what was happening, they had all been herded upstairs and locked in their rooms with no means of entertaining themselves. Logan had even gone as far as taking Remy's lock picks, and every bobbi pin and paperclip in the house. He then returned to the first floor to finsh the clean up himself. Just because he had resorted to keeping them all prisoner, and having to clean up after them himself did not mean he had lost the bet! It was only the first day after all, he still had six more to whip them into shape.

As he scrubbed Jello off of every available surface including the walls, he decided that he may have to call in a favor or two to get them into shape. He was going to win this bet and single handedly get the kids under control. Even if he had to get help to do it.

~oOoOo~

AN: So ends the first part of the story. Next up, Logan will get help from old friends, but they may end up being more of a hindrance. I hope everyone enjoyed the story. The next part will take a bit to finish since I'm still working on a couple of other projects.


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